WordPress Theme Support – The Awful or Awesome Truth

So you’ve finally uploaded your shiny new premium WordPress theme but it looks nothing like the theme you loved so much in the demo and now you’re wondering if you just wasted your money on a lemon. You fiddle and you tweak but the errors just keep piling up. Not all premium WordPress themes include free support so it can be a bit perplexing especially if you are setting up a website for a client. Frustrating, is a mild word. Where do you go and what do you do?

Here are some of things to look for, support-wise, before, during, and after purchasing a premium WordPress theme. Some theme providers have all of them while some don’t so use your own discretion and judgment before you make your final decision and click that “Confirm purchase” button.

Documentation (Theme or Plugin guides – online or offline)

Check if the theme includes extensive and detailed documentation and a troubleshooting guide if available. Find out whether installation and setup guides are available online and offline as access to these guides serve as your reference documents as you setup your WordPress theme.

XML file or demo content

Most of the time we get attracted to a particular theme because of the demo. The demo gives us an idea on what is possible for our own individual projects. Unfortunately, recreating the same demo can be challenging if the elements used in the demo are not included. Some authors do not include the demo file but there is a growing trend among a lot of authors where they include the XML file or demo content as a bonus.

Photoshop files (layered)

Trying to recreate the WordPress theme in the demo can be much easier if the author includes all the allowable files used. Photoshop files make it easier for you to duplicate or customize the theme’s design elements without having to start from scratch.

Detailed tutorials (video or text)

Text based tutorials are great but video tutorials are best because the author can demonstrate and guide you on exactly what to do when setting up or modifying your WordPress theme. Video tutorials save you a lot of time, and, mistakes are reduced because of misinterpretation. Simply pause and play when you need to go back to a certain instruction.

Screenshots

In the absence of video tutorials, screenshots are also great because they serve as visual guides to help you install and get your WordPress theme up and running. Visuals are always effective as it gives you a clear picture of what you are supposed to do. You can always go back and refer to these screenshots if you get lost along the way.

Basic support services for installation, setup, guidance, bug fixing and general support for basic WordPress issues and concerns

For non-WordPress savvy users, authors and developers provide basic WordPress theme setup and installation. The extent of this service varies from author to author although generally this service includes simple adjustments and tweaks that do not fall under their customization services.

Support or Community Forum

WordPress authors and developers who have been around long enough in the business are most likely to have a dedicated support forum or community support group to help each other out. Access is generally limited to members or customers who have purchased themes sold by these authors. Make sure to register in these forums and be active in the community to learn hacks, tips and tricks that don’t normally come with the documentation and tutorials.

Help desk, live chat, or available hours for technical support

Some WordPress authors or theme providers might even have the legroom to provide a dedicated support system which includes a help desk or ticket based support system, live chat, and dedicated technical support crew. Be sure to note the time or hours support is available as some of these teams live in different time zones.

Update and Upgrade Support

WordPress updates its software from time to time and problems arise when the WordPress theme you purchased is no longer compatible with these updates. Same thing goes with plugins and other elements like short codes, etc. Make sure that your WordPress theme author or developer has provision for updates and upgrades that will affect the theme and if there are any additional charges related to it.

Author/Developer Contact info

Find out and store the author or developer’s contact information online and offline. Request for an email address, a business phone number, or any other means to get in touch with the author if he does not have a dedicated support forum. Leaving comments on the WordPress theme’s product preview page does not guarantee your concerns will be attended to in real time.

Finding the perfect WordPress theme that matches your dream website is more than just appearances. Make sure you know what you are getting when you pay for that pretty theme you’ve been eyeing. It pays to know what’s in the fine print…or what’s not in it.

P.S. – Don’t Forget Your WordPress Footer

Save the best for last, so they say, and you can very well do so by optimizing your WordPress footer. The footer, more or less, is an indicator of your website’s personal style. Not all people like flooding their footer with links. Those who subscribe to the minimalist approach prefer a couple of links or so as a subtle reminder to users that they are at the bottom of the page. Others prefer to engage and encourage users to explore a little bit more. Whatever your style preference is, the footer is a useful navigational tool you can use to highlight important content that you would like users to know about.

The footer is essentially another sidebar that can be filled with widgets, secondary information, or even a simple copyright notice if that’s all you prefer. It frees up your sidebar to contain the more urgent call to action items or important links your users need to be aware of. Nevertheless, it is still prime real estate on your site as it is the last thing the user sees when he scrolls all the way to the bottom of the page. The WordPress code for the footer can appear like the one below. Use a wp_footer() call, to appear just before closing body tag:

<?php wp_footer(); ?>
</body>
</html>

Below is a list of content that you may or may not add to your footer:

  • Social Network Links
  • Recent Posts | Pages
  • Categories
  • Feeds | Feed Links
  • Newsletter Subscription
  • Designer Credit(s)
  • Random Quotes
  • Advertisements
  • About
  • Links to Recommended Resources
  • Pictures | Flickr feed
  • Credit and Thanks
  • Popular Posts within your blog/site
  • Links to tutorials or “must read first” articles
  • Calendar
  • Tag List or Tag Cloud
  • Copyright

If you choose to optimize your footer with SEO techniques be sure to take into account recent Google Panda and Penguin updates to make sure your website will not be penalized for “over optimizing” and simply stick to links that are really useful.

Friendly, Optimized, Ready – Really? SEO and your WordPress Theme

A lot of premium WordPress themes claim to be SEO friendly, SEO optimized, or SEO ready. Did you know that WordPress is one of the most SEO friendly CMS (content management systems) publishing platforms on the internet? SEO is actually a built in feature within WordPress, ready to embrace search engines straight out of the box. But what is SEO really all about? Is it enough to just have a pretty WordPress theme to boost your site’s traffic? Why the need for 3rd party plugins if WordPress is SEO friendly from the beginning?

Search Engine Optimization

There are many ways to define SEO and here are a few:

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results.[jargon] In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search,[1] news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.
(source: Wikipedia)

SEO is the practice of improving and promoting a web site in order to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines. There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.
Search Engine Optimization isn’t just about “engines.” It’s about making your site better for people too.
(source: seomoz.org)

Simply put, SEO helps you connect with your target market. It boils down to being “ find-able” to those who are already looking for you. Unfortunately, it is also true that if your website is “out of sight” it is definitely “out of the mind” of these seekers and potential customers. Even if you do “build” a beautiful website, they won’t necessarily “come” unless they are family and friends who just want to be supportive of you. Bottom line, no matter how pretty your website is, you need SEO to make sure that your beautiful website can be found and appreciated.

Another culprit to your WordPress site being “out of sight, out of mind” of the search engines is the WordPress theme you use. Not all premium themes are SEO optimized, friendly, or ready even if they claim to be so. Yes, WordPress is SEO friendly by default but if you install, customize and use various theme to meet your own needs, your “premium” theme might actually break some of those useful search engine features and do more harm than good to your rankings.

Here are some SEO basics straight from Google’s mouth to make sure your WordPress theme is truly SEO friendly, optimized and ready:

Create unique, accurate page titles

Choose a title that effectively communicates the topic of the page’s content. Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site. Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result.

Make use of the “description” meta tag

Write a description that would both inform and interest users if they saw your description meta tag as a snippet in a search result.

Improve the structure of your URLs

URLs with words that are relevant to your site’s content and structure are friendlier for visitors navigating your site. Visitors remember them better and might be more willing to link to them. Use a directory structure that organizes your content well and makes it easy for visitors to know where they’re at on your site.

Make your site easier to navigate

Make it as easy as possible for users to go from general content to the more specific content they want on your site. Add navigation pages when it makes sense and effectively work these into your internal link structure. Controlling most of the navigation from page to page on your site through text links makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your site.

Offer quality content and services

Users enjoy content that is well written and easy to follow. It’s always beneficial to organize your content so that visitors have a good sense of where one content topic begins and another ends. Breaking your content up into logical chunks or divisions helps users find the content they want faster. New content will not only keep your existing visitor base coming back, but also bring in new visitors.

Write better anchor text

The anchor text you use for a link should provide at least a basic idea of what the page linked to is about. Aim for short but descriptive text-usually a few words or a short phrase. Make it easy for users to distinguish between regular text and the anchor text of your links. Your content becomes less useful if users miss the links or accidentally click them.

Optimize your use of images

Like many of the other parts of the page targeted for optimization, filenames and alt text (for ASCII languages) are best when they’re short, but descriptive. If you do decide to use an image as a link, filling out its alt text helps Google understand more about the page you’re linking to. Imagine that you’re writing anchor text for a text link. An Image Sitemap file can provide Googlebot with more information about the images found on your site. Its structure is similar to the XML Sitemap file for your web pages.

Use heading tags appropriately

Heading tags (not to be confused with the HTML tag or HTTP headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are six sizes of heading tags, beginning with h1, the most important, and ending with h6, the least important (1).

Similar to writing an outline for a large paper, put some thought into what the main points and subpoints of the content on the page will be and decide where to use heading tags appropriately. Use heading tags where it makes sense. Too many heading tags on a page can make it hard for users to scan the content and determine where one topic ends and another begins.

Make effective use of robots.txt

Restrict crawling where it’s not needed with robots.txt. A “robots.txt” file tells search engines whether they can access and therefore crawl parts of your site.

Be aware of rel=”nofollow” for links

Setting the value of the “rel” attribute of a link to “nofollow” will
tell Google that certain links on your site shouldn’t be followed
or pass your page’s reputation to the pages linked to.
Nofollowing a link is adding rel=”nofollow” inside of the link’s anchor tag.

Notify Google of mobile sites

Configure mobile sites so that they can be indexed accurately. Verify that your mobile site is indexed by Google. A Mobile Sitemap can be submitted using Google Webmaster Tools, just like a standard Sitemap.

Guide mobile users accurately

When a mobile user or crawler (like Googlebot-Mobile) accesses the desktop version of a URL, you can redirect them to the corresponding mobile version of the same page. If you redirect users, please make sure that the content on the corresponding mobile/desktop URL matches as closely as possible.

Promote your website in the right ways

Sites built around user interaction and sharing have made it easier to match interested groups of people up with relevant content. As people discover your content through search or other ways and link to it, Google understands that you’d like to let others know about the hard work you’ve put into your content

Make use of free webmaster tools

Improve the crawling and indexing of your site using Google’s free Webmasters Tools or other services. Google offers a variety of tools to help you analyze traffic on your site.

These are the SEO basics that you can use to assess whether your WordPress theme or your website is optimized or not. If you would like to read more on these SEO basics, check out Google’s free pdf resource “Search Engine Optimizer Guide”.

25 Basic Adobe Lightroom Tutorials for Learners

The phrase “photo editing” has become synonymous with “Adobe Photoshop”. Photoshop is the industry leader when it comes to editing images. But one drawback of Photoshop is that a designer needs a good amount of coaching before he can use Photoshop properly. A coaching center near my house promises to teach Photoshop in 2 months to the layman. Not everybody will be willing to invest two months to learn a photo editing software, especially when one does not intend to choose photo designing as a career.

Understanding this problem, Adobe has designed another software named Adobe Lightroom to help even the general public to easily edit images. To quote Adobe’s website – “Lightroom includes all the tools you need for most digital photography tasks in one intuitive solution. Lightroom helps photographers work faster and more efficiently with one image, a set of images, or a large image library.”

When I stated that Lightroom can be used for the general public I don’t mean that one can begin using it merely after installing it. Obviously you need to have some guidance to use the software properly. Therefore, in this blog post, I have collected a list of 25 excellent tutorials on how to use Lightroom properly and get desired results.

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Harmony Theme from Elegant Themes is LIVE

On Nov 29, Elegant Themes officially released Harmony, a versatile premium WordPress theme designed for musicians and bands. Its key features are its custom audio player for sampling music tracks, event manager features and eCommerce functionality. Visitors can listen to the band’s music, purchase concert tickets via the band’s ticket vendor of choice and purchase music/merchandise through the theme’s WooCommerce powered e-store pages. It’s a one-stop website both musicians and fans will surely enjoy.

Harmony is a well designed, well developed theme considering this is Elegant’s first step into music themes. A lot of expectation and inputs have been given by users since the theme’s announcement on Nov. 7 and these suggestions have been carefully woven into the theme as best possible. The theme continues to deliver that signature Elegant Themes look and upholds its reputation for simple yet sophisticated design that distinguishes it, specifically Harmony’s aesthetics, from other music themes in the market. In addition, its excellent event management capabilities make it convenient for fans to patronize the band’s latest gigs and concerts as seamless and as effortless as scrolling through the pages.

Harmony includes an integrated MP3 audio player which gives fans and potential fans the opportunity to listen to audio samples of upcoming or already released music tracks. The theme is also equipped to display music videos and concert previews as an effective marketing tool to attract the attention of this media savvy generation of fans. This theme is also responsive and will work well on handheld and mobile devices – a staple of every ear plugged music fan out there. This means that fans can enjoy their favorite band’s music anytime, anywhere – which is definitely music to any musician’s ears.

Features:

  • Responsive Design
  • Theme Options
  • Shortcodes
  • Page Templates
  • Perpetual Updates
  • Secure and Valid Code
  • Browser Compatibility
  • Complete Localization
  • Unlimited Colors
  • Unparalleled Support

Harmony Premium WordPress Theme includes top-notch tech support provided by Elegant themes’ support staff to help you setup your site and get it running in no time.

Get 77 Premium Themes for $39

40 Future City Art Illustrations for Inspiration

My physics teacher used to say – “Change is constant in nature. If change is not taking place then something is wrong.” We started from a Big Bang, life somehow evolved on earth, we learnt how to burn fire, we learnt the power of a wheel, we learned how to make machines, Franklin discovered electricity, Faraday discovered how to produce it in power houses, Bill Gates developed Windows and here we are in the twenty first century. But what if we try to go a little further? What if we try to envision the future? This is an interesting topic and the numerous popular science fiction movies and novels bear witness to this fact.

Stephen Hawking said on a Discovery Channel program that it may be possible to build a time machine with which we can go into the future but not back in history. Such a time machine has not yet been made and is only a subject of fiction. Science is too strict and limited by the laws of nature while art, in this respect, is limitless as it is free to imagine and inculcate anything and everything in its domain. Below I present you with 40 art illustrations which our artists have carefully crafted by imagining what the future of our world might look.

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Responsive Web Design (RWD) vs Adaptive Web Design (AWD)

We’ve heard the terms Fluid, Adaptive, and Responsive used interchangeably when describing a theme’s ability to resize according to browser specs or device (mobile or not) size. Are they really different from one another or are they referring to the same characteristics found in themes described as such?

What is Responsive Web Design (RWD)? Responsive Layout?

Let’s take a closer look.

Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones) – Wikipedia

Responsive design is the methodology behind making a website respond to whatever platform you are viewing it on regardless of resolution and orientation. It may change how certain elements display but it will not remove elements or change the core functionality of their behaviours. Responsive design uses a fluid grid and it is usually possible entirely through HTML and CSS, without the need for DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation. – Matthew Freeman

According to Ethan Marcotte, The 3 Elements of Responsive Web Design are:

A flexible, grid-based layout – A layout based on proportions rather than absolutes; uses a flexible grid, which in turn ensures that a website can scale to a browser’s full width.

Flexible images and media – Layouts based on percentages resize gracefully according to the size of the browser window rendering them. However, it is problematic to ensure that the content within a site resizes.
Images and media should scale with the flexible grid; images that work in a flexible context, whether fluid themselves or perhaps controlled through overflow mechanisms. CSS addresses this problem with its max-width property

Media queries – Content based breakpoints; optimize the design for different viewing contexts and spot-fix bugs that occur at different resolution ranges. CSS3’s media queries directly address these usability problems by allowing browsers to serve different styles for different viewing contexts. CSS3 greatly expands support for media queries, adding the ability to target media features such as screen and device width and orientation.

These 3 elements of Responsive Web Design find their way into 3 different types of Responsive (RWD) Layouts:

The Basic Fluid Lay­out
Con­tent con­tin­u­ally flows or adjusts in a word-wrap fash­ion as screen width is increased or reduced. There are no “dis­tinct” dif­fer­ences in con­tent pre­sen­ta­tion. Fluid layouts are dynamic and user sensitive – adapting to the available real estate on the user interface and providing increased content accessibility.

The Adap­tive Lay­out
There are pre­de­fined sizes were dif­fer­ent lay­outs are trig­gered. These are called breakpoints. Typ­i­cally there are three or four break­points to accom­mo­date desk­top, tablet and mobile screen sizes.

The Respon­sive Lay­out
This is a hybrid of Basic Fluid Lay­out and Adap­tive Lay­out. There are pre­de­fined break points, how­ever in between these breakpoints con­tent will flow to expand or con­tract.

According to his article for the Adobe Blog, Carl Sandquist states that:

“Cur­rently, most RWD web sites use Respon­sive Lay­out since it offers a best-of-both-world expe­ri­ence. Con­tent snaps into the appro­pri­ate approx­i­mate posi­tion for a device type (e.g. Tablet) and then fine-tuned adjust­ments are made for the exact screen size on a par­tic­u­lar device.”

What is Adaptive Design (AWD)? Adaptive Layout?

“Adaptive design is the manipulation of layouts to best perform on certain screen resolutions inclusive of elemental removal or behaviour changing techniques. Adaptive design usually requires Javascript to efficiently manipulate the DOM. Javascript can be avoided if you plan on having duplicate on-page elements and then show or hide them based on screen sizes, this might be appropriate for smaller elements but not whole columns or navigation elements.” – Matthew Freeman

“This technique adapts what is displayed depending on the capabilities of the device being used, as well as the screen size. It centres on the context of the user, so even when the same content is used, it is adapted (with some or even all of the design elements changing), depending on whether the user is using a mouse and keyboard or touch screen. AWD also uses different layouts for tablets and mobiles with certain. ‘Responsive’ elements built in to reduce the number of different templates required. AWD can be taken to further extremes with content being completely repackaged and reworded, while images and video are either reworked or completely removed.” – Danny Bluestone

According to Aaron Gustafson, author of Adaptive Web Design, Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement:

“Progressive enhancement isn’t about browsers. It’s about crafting experiences that serve your users by giving them access to content without technological restrictions. Progressive enhancement doesn’t require that you provide the same experience in different browsers, nor does it preclude you from using the latest and greatest technologies; it simply asks that you honor your content (and your users) by applying technologies in an intelligent way, layer-upon-layer, to craft an amazing experience.

He encourages designers to: Think of the user, not the browser.”

Which one is better?

A better understanding of the differences between Responsive Web Design and Adaptive Web Design is a starting point to deciding which solution will work well for you, or your clients, if you are a WordPress professional. Knowing what solutions are available and having the ability to distinguish and implement whichever design approach best meets the specifications of the end user is an important element. Of course, nothing is carved in stone. Future designs may be a combination or a hybrid of both – employing the best features of each one. The goal is to ensure that the user experience at the point of searching and eventually finding your website is the best experience they get at that particular moment – fully hoping that it will be the first of many more visits and not their last.

10 Inspirational Typography Plugins for WordPress

Believe it or not – typography or the way you present your text and media on your website – plays a crucial role in building your brand name. Did you know? There are books comprising thousands of pages that teach you how to use a consistent typographical style on your publications. Such as well as “Style Guides” like The Chicago Manual of Style, The MLA Style Manual, Hart’s Rules or The Oxford Guide to Style, etc. Different organizations use different style guides and apply them on their publications in order to achieve consistency throughout the text. If a person who has been reading The Guardian for several months will be asked to identify the paper amongst a collection of many other papers such that the name of the publication is hidden from view, he will have little or no difficulty in identifying it. This is because The Guardian, just like all other standard newspapers, use a specific set of fonts, a specific indentation, a specific line gap, etc. in its publications. Such things help create an authority and reinforce the brand name.

It is not necessary that you follow the standard guides for your publication. If you want you can create your own set of style rules or mix some of your own personal tastes with any standard style manual. Whatever you decide, to help you in your endeavor I present you with 10 inspirational typography plug-ins for WordPress. Some are free while some others cost a nominal amount.

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Useful Resourcse to Help You Understand WordPress Theme Structure

Trying to understand how WordPress works can be overwhelming with the tons of resources available online. Below is a compilation of some great resources we’ve narrowed down to help you get your feet wet as you start practicing your WordPress coding skills: